I’m a staff writer covering all things Wall Street and Investing. I have a love hate relationship with the world of finance. I am fascinated by the industry’s power and influence around the globe, and the ingenuity of the people it employs. Not so much a fan of the lack of accountability when the system fails—which it often does: I'm always on the hunt for people and companies to profile.

Citi CEO Vikram Pandit Gets Rejected Again

Citigroup investors rejected a pay plan that would have awarded him $15 million. Talk about investors voicing their concern. This just a month after the Federal Reserve rejected the bank’s capital plan under its stress tests.

At Citi’s annual meeting in Dallas more than half of the investors there voted against a proposal on executive compensation. The vote also affects the pay of other top management at the bank.

Outgoing Citi chairman Richard Parsons said the board is taking the matter seriously and will meet with shareholders to discuss their concerns.

The vote on executive compensation, which came out of the Dodd-Frank reform act, isn’t binding but very significant nonetheless as it reveals shareholders frustration with the bank. While Citi shares have rallied along side its peers this year it was dealt a huge blow in mid-March when it failed the Fed’s stress tests that measure banks’ potential strength in adverse economic conditions.

Citi was a surprise loser in that round of stress tests. Yesterday Pandit told analysts he wasn’t sure yet about whether or not the bank would resubmit its capital plans or just wait for the 2013 round of stress tests. That means investors would have to wait for a potential dividend hike.

In 2011, Pandit’s compensation was around $15 million including a salary of $1.7 million and cash bonus of over $5 million. There was another $8 million or so in deferred stock and cash.

Citi released a new pay package for senior executives in February 2011. Citi announced the news late on the Friday afternoon before President’s Day weekend— a classic strategy when companies have to disclose something but want to avoid attracting attention to it. Why try to sneak this under the radar? The bar was set ridiculously low for incentive payments. The main number that management had to hit for bonuses was cumulative pretax income of $12 billion, mostly for the “good” part of Citi, called Citicorp. (The bulk of the remainder of the company, with all the unwanted stuff, has been split off into a separate company called Citi Holdings.) That hurdle, $12 billion, may sound high, but it’s about half of what the company earned in each of the last two years.

As for Pandit, whose compensation terms were finalized a few months later in May, I calculated that he would make $43 million if Citi simply met consensus earnings estimates from that period, and that he would qualify for incentive compensation only a couple quarters later. In other words, the senior team at Citi could get enormous paychecks for performance that one could quantifiably argue is merely average, including profit numbers that were lower than the company had hit over the prior two years. That is no incentive. It’s like giving the manager of the Yankees a big reward for winning only half of the games in a season.

Keep in mind that in 2011 shares of Citi fell 44%.

Here’s a statement from Citi:

“Citi’s Board of Directors takes the shareholder vote seriously, and along with senior management will consult with representative shareholders to understand their concerns. The Personnel and Compensation Committee of the Board will carefully consider their input as we move forward.”

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For Citi leaders to think that they have been good boys so reward them is out of the question until they earn back all of the money they foolishly lost doing CDS and other high risk loans. The stock value is still in the deep negtive range and until it gets back where it was prior to the crash, they deserve no rewards or increases of any kind. In fact the multi millions they are now getting paid are way out of line and should be reduced to less than a million until stock holders get their money back in shareholders value. $16 million, dam they are robbing stockholders again!!!

I do not believe any CEO is worth the insane amt of money they have been paid. I can only state that they must have sold their souls. Do they not realize that they will reap what they have sown? They should be grateful that it is only the citizens who are in a uproar over their salaries and those were after a bail-out, how insane is that? They best hope the devil does not come to collect soon is all I can say.

Here’s hoping that the masses are waking up. I’m not a commie or socialist but there is something very wrong here that needs to be addressed. I work for V_erizon which is a healthy, profitable company. The old CEO and incoming CEO pulled in 50 MILLION DOLLARS between them last year. So how is this profitable company treating the workers? By trying to take away pensions,healthcare and outsourcing American jobs overseas! Do these CEO’s feel any obligation toward keeping the middle class alive in this country or is it all just “hooray for me, the heck with you? ” I’m pretty sure I already know the answer to that question.

Here’s hoping that the masses are waking up. I’m not a commie or socialist but there is something very wrong here that needs to be addressed. I work for Verizon which is a healthy, profitable company. The old CEO and incoming CEO pulled in 50 MILLION DOLLARS between them last year. So how is this profitable company treating the workers? By trying to take away pensions,healthcare and outsourcing American jobs overseas! Do these CEO’s feel any obligation toward keeping the middle class alive in this country or is it all just “hooray for me, the heck with you? ” I’m pretty sure I already know the answer to that question.

I am agree with shareholder consensus. The BANK need to understand that real growth and future ventures are based on by having a right team and customer satisfaction. Today Citi is a place that simply believe in building stress and anxiety among the employees rather than focusing of building motivation and leadership ability. This BANK need great leadership and right management. If the above key items are not replaced soon, this bank will face massive challenges in future.

How is it that the board can get any money and those that have worked very hard for them have not gotten a single percent increase in the last 5 years? Yet they can support the 2012 Olympics and buy a baseball stadium!!!! And they want us to donate money? Not to mention they can’t even give up free Olympic anything! I don’t think so!! Especially when I haven’t seen a cost of living raise even. I think the whole bunch should be fired. Especially when I am forced to exist on $0.25 Mac and Cheese, to be able to live. The board should be ashamed!